Scanning Anarchy

Seeing those photos of charred and incinerated journals at Freedom Press was a bit shocking. We’d already scanned one of our back issues of “Anarchy”, the 1960’s periodical (monthly for most of its run) when we had an enquiry from an academic researching Landauer (or was it Buber?) and, it turned out, our grim Northern library was one of the places that had Anarchy No. 54.

Scanning journals is time consuming and you don’t immediately see any results (i.e. the people benefitting tend not to visit the premises). But seeing those burned editions of Freedom was quite an eye opener. It’s not the paper, it’s the words on the paper. And Bradford is a place where buildings burn down mysteriously all the time. It works out pretty well for the slumlords who can get the missing piece for their development plan on easy terms from obdurate independent types suddenly finding themselves in charge of a smouldering ruin, or exchange a high-maintenance low-income historic mill for a zero-maintenance pay & display car park with the toss of a match. Allegedly.

So, as part of our cataloguing frenzy we’ve scanned the first 10 editions of Anarchy, from 1961, and most of them are online now (there are a few upload issues outstanding) – they’re in searchable PDF format and you can also just download the text.

If you’re local to Bradford you could help us by coming in sometime to help us catalogue, scan, or sweep up (these are all necessary tasks of equal value and glamour). Check the 1in12 website for dates, or leave a comment below. Further afield, you can (a) let people know about our efforts, on your blog or whatever passes for conversation nowadays, or just send a big cheque to The 1in12 Library, 21-23 Albion Street, Bradford BD1 2LY.

Although, in the immediate, if you’re sending money anywhere it should probably be to Freedom Press.

Meanwhile, if you have a new-ish scanner you don’t need, we’d love to have it. Currently we have to use an old (slow) computer to scan as the scanners we have won’t talk to the newer computers. It takes ages. Get in touch.

Finally (1), if you’re one of those people who enjoys filling in grant funding applications we’re pretty sure this is the kind of project that has “give me your money” written all over it. And we do owe the 1in12 Club about 15 years in peppercorn rent and utility contributions. So get in touch if you know the magic words that can crack open the wallets of babylon for us, and if you can look at those forms without getting a migraine.

Finally (2), If you enjoy building work we’ve got a serious ceiling insulation project booked so we don’t have to suffer another expensive and chilly winter in the library. This isn’t going to happen imminently as we’ve no money for materials. But we have plans (including a groovy Library Disco) so, eventually, there may be some kind of bring-yer-tools weekender. Watch this space.

The journals are here: Anarchy 1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, – note we don’t have a copy of no. 2, but we do have some doubles of other issues. Get in touch if you can help.